Capitalism turns children’s play into preparation for work, but it cannot fully contain what play makes possible. In her new book, Susan Ferguson explores how the openness and pleasure of play can help us imagine other ways of being together.
France’s “Hot Autumn” Is Boosting the Left
High school students in France’s working-class suburbs sparked a revolt that now includes workers, unions, and a new generation of yellow vests. Stathis Kouvelakis explains why it could reshape France’s 2027 presidential election and the European left.
A Childlike Devotion Runs Through Godzilla Minus Zero
It’s heartwarming the way Takeshi Yamazaki has been able to channel his childhood commitment to that ultimate destructive monster, Godzilla, into Godzilla Minus Zero.
South Africa’s ANC Is Collapsing. The Far Right Is Rising.
The African National Congress is losing its working-class base. The beneficiaries: parties of the Right. South Africa’s local elections expose the fallout of three decades of economic failure — and the need to rebuild working-class power.
The Politics of Beef in the 2026 Midterms
Beef has long symbolized the promise of American material abundance. The midterms illustrated the political consequences of failing to deliver it.
Is Trump Crashing the Dollar Empire?
Economist Mona Ali on how the United States wields the world’s most powerful currency to shore up empire and its own ruling class — and how Trump’s careless moves might blow it all up.
The real choice is not between globalization and deglobalization, free trade and tariff walls, but between empowering capital and empowering workers.
Organizing for Tenant and Political Power in Montana
We spoke to a Montana tenant union leader about organizing renters in the state and the midterms victory of Sam Forstag, a smoke jumper, a union leader, and the first elected House Democrat in Montana in three decades.
Inside Colombia’s FARC, as Victory Gave Way to Survival
Tanja Nijmeijer’s memoir tells of how Colombia’s FARC was forced into a long and painful retreat. Her account of its political setbacks suggests that power doesn’t always flow from the barrel of a gun.
Europe Relies on Illegal Pushbacks to Deter Migrants
Pushbacks are a tactic to violently force migrants back across borders. European authorities recognize that the practice is illegal, but this hasn’t stopped pushbacks from becoming increasingly common along the EU’s external boundaries.
Democrats Did Their Best Bernie Impression in the Midterms
Put their 2026 midterms side by side with previous campaigns, and it’s clear: Democrats won in red states by sounding less like Democrats and more like Bernie Sanders.
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Empire became a campus sensation because it offered a master theory for globalization at a moment when old Marxist categories seemed exhausted. But the capitalist internationalism they saw as permanent has now crashed and burned.
Eugene Debs’s Life Speaks to Today’s Socialist Movement
Eugene Debs’s greatest achievement was not any particular vote tally. It was his making socialist partisans understand that the socialist movement arose out of the American political tradition’s most democratic currents.
Guglielmo Carchedi Was a Pathbreaking Marxist Economist
Guglielmo Carchedi, who died in October at 85, was one of the great Marxist thinkers of our time. His early work on the new middle class and his later work on value theory and crises still offer the Left powerful tools.
Possible Love Is a Cinematic Masterpiece About Class
Lee Chang-dong doesn’t have the same profile as fellow South Korean directors like Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, but his latest film should change that. Possible Love is a powerful study of class in the wake of a shattering real-life strike defeat.
US Government Bureaucracy Is Designed to Punish Working People
In The Time Tax, journalist Annie Lowrey ably documents the myriad ways US public services harm poor and working-class people and alienate them from the government. Yet she downplays the class interests that benefit from these Kafkaesque arrangements.